CCLA Reacts to Ontario Passing the Safer Municipalities Act

The CCLA, as a member of the Encampment Justice Coalition, strongly opposes the punitive and harmful measures in Ontario’s Safer Municipalities Act, 2025, passed on June 3^rd. On May 16^e, the CCLA wrote to the Premier of Ontario, urging the government to reconsider passing Bill 6 as it only serves to further criminalize vulnerable individuals (read our letter). This legislation gives police officers the power to, under their own discretion and without a warrant, remove individuals from their encampment dwelling on suspicion that they have consumed an illegal substance, as well as arrest those individuals who do not comply with police orders to leave their encampment dwelling. The Safer Municipalities Act, 2025 also allows police to levy fines of up to $10,000, and/or incarceration of up to six months, if an individual is charged with an offence under the Acte.

This legislation targets already marginalized and vulnerable communities, such as people living in encampments, those with mental health conditions, people with substance addictions, and Indigenous peoples. These punitive measures will only serve to increase their marginalization. Ontario courts have also found that, as part of our section 7 Charte rights, individuals have the right to shelter themselves in public spaces through encampment dwellings if they have no adequate alternative shelter. Instead of criminalization, unhoused community members need solutions that are in line with human rights, where their safety and wellbeing are centered.

Homelessness is already a crisis in Ontario. According to a recent report by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, more than 81,500 individuals experienced homelessness in the province in 2024 (an increase of 25% since 2022). The Acte will serve to act as a barrier to cutting poverty levels, and will make it more challenging for individuals to obtain stable living. Unhoused people rely on public spaces for the necessities of life.

Further, with the Ontario government’s closure of the province’s 17 supervised consumption sites, the Acte will result in even fewer safe spaces to use substances. This will, without a doubt, lead to an increased risk of harm from overdose by pushing this vulnerable population into further isolation. This is especially concerning considering over 26,000 Ontarians have lost their lives since 2016 in the ongoing overdose crisis. This law will not help solve the problems of homelessness and substance addiction; instead, it tries to hide these issues from public view.

Rather than criminalizing people who are unhoused, the Ontario government needs to invest in meaningful policy solutions that address the contributing factors to homelessness and housing precarity: the rising and unaffordable cost of housing, low-to-no rent control, and very low social assistance rates.

Instead of criminalizing unhoused people, the government should take an evidence-based approach in addressing affordable housing and the addiction/overdose epidemic in Ontario.

La Safer Municipalities Act does not make our communities safer and will impact fundamental rights and freedoms of some of the most marginalized and vulnerable residents in Ontario.